Work IT smart, not hard. How can organisations get more business value out of information technology without driving IT harder? Discussions on achieving this goal through better alignment between business strategies and IT, and in-depth understanding of trends in information technology.

Topics: Business strategy and the role of IT, Enterprise Architecture, Information Technology trends, Cool technologies.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Gamification: Digging past the marketing hype

One of my first reactions when I heard about
gamification was, isn’t this an old idea?
I have seen past examples of using game concepts to meet business
objectives. In fact, I was part of one
such project, where we created a wheel-of-fortune-like game to raise awareness
of computer security issues. Moreover,
there are many old examples of education software incorporating game concepts
into them. What then is different about
gamification? Surely the concept of
using fun to engage people is not new! One
university professor felt so strongly that he wrote an article titled
“Gamification is Bullshit”[1]! Consequently, for a while, I half believed
that gamification was just marketing hype with no real novelty behind it.

Later I encountered an explanation that though gamification
is not a new idea, it is gamification’s widespread impact that is new, and that
has come about because of the emergence of a generation grown up on games. As such, gamification is now more widely accepted,
where before it was locked out of business boardrooms. There is some truth to this, but as I read
more, I discovered that there is even more depth to this topic.

Identifying Game Mechanics

Firstly, I discovered game mechanics/dynamics—mechanisms in
games that make them interesting and engaging.
For example, one mechanics is the “appointment dynamic”, where players
need to accomplish a certain task at a certain time. Happy hours at bars is an example of this
mechanic. I was impressed with how
gamification literature was able to systematically categorize and describe many
more mechanics, and that moved me to believe that there is some science behind
the topic.

Learning about Engagement Psychology

Next, I realized that studying motivation and engagement is
much more important now than before as the number of choices for things like
websites and mobile apps have grown overwhelmingly. Games are arguably the best place to study these
topics. Unlike other software, there are
no practical needs—like creating documents or booking hotels—driving people to
games. As such, games need to work
harder to entice and engage people. Even
though I was tempted to dismiss gamification as a rebrand of engagement
psychology, I find games easier to understand and access than psychology
literature.

Understanding Gamification Considerations

The book “Gamification by Design”[2]
further strengthened my confidence in gamification. It gives a detailed write-up on the different
game mechanics along with considerations when incorporating those mechanics. I began to see that gamification might have
gotten bad press because some implemented its concept without fully
appreciating the “whys” and the “hows”.
For example, “points system” is a common feature in gamified systems,
but without careful consideration of when and how many points to award, it
would be useless in increasing user engagement.

Gamification is a topic worthy of serious consideration in
the present age of attention deficit, what do you think?

About Me

I am an IT consultant with over ten years of experience in IT, including my recent stint as senior architect for Singapore's National Electronic Health Record project. I have worked on IT in a variety of settings, including research lab, startup, multi-national software company and government. I have been an IT enthusiast from young, and is passionate about seeing information technology make a deep impact in people's lives and organisations. Currently, I am a Systems Design and Management fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying how organisations can better leverage IT.